Israel resumes West Bank raids as military chief warns of ‘point of no return’

Israeli military informs the country's political leadership that further rampages by settlers could result in a spiral of violence

Israeli soldiers stand next to a damaged Palestinian building in the town of Huwwara, near the West Bank city of Nablus (AP)

By
MEE staff
Published date: 28 February 2023 1

Israeli forces resumed their nightly raids in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday after a week-long lull, following an unprecedented rampage over the weekend by Jewish settlers.

Eight Palestinians, which Israel claims are wanted individuals, were detained on Tuesday.

The raids have become a regular occurrence for Palestinians in the occupied territories, inflaming tensions and resulting in a spike in violence since Israel intensified them last year.

Israeli forces are also seeking two suspected Palestinian gunmen, one following a shooting in the West Bank town of Huwwara that left two Israeli settlers dead on Sunday and another shooting on Monday evening which left a 27-year-old Israeli-American dead.

Israeli forces have tightened their grip on the city of Jericho following the shooting, with the attacker believed to have fled towards the city.

Israeli military officials are also increasingly worried about the situation in the West Bank spiralling out of control.

'Another night of riots like that, and we’ll reach a point of no return'
- Major General Yehuda Fuchs, Israeli army

Israeli forces killed 11 Palestinians, including a child and three elderly people, and wounded 100 others last Wednesday during a military raid in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus.

The weekend's rampage by settlers has also been described as unprecedented in nature.

At least one Palestinian was killed and nearly 400 were wounded in the attacks on Huwwara and other West Bank towns and villages, Palestinian health officials said.

Settlers completely burnt down at least 35 homes and 40 others were partially damaged, and many of the buildings were set on fire while their Palestinian inhabitants sheltered inside. More than 100 cars were burnt or otherwise destroyed.

Eight settlers were detained following the riots, six were released on Monday and a further two on Tuesday, according to Israeli law enforcement.

Israeli military officials believe that tensions will continue into Ramadan, which begins at the end of March.

Leading official Major General Yehuda Fuchs warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a security briefing that the Huwwara rampage threatened to push the situation in the occupied territories out of control.

“Another night of riots like that, and we’ll reach a point of no return,” Fuchs told Netanyahu, according to Israeli media.

“All of us went through an Intifada, but no one went through an Intifada that had online incitement, which makes the riot even more dangerous,” Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar also reportedly said in the security discussion with Netanyahu.

 
Settler violence

Israeli authorities are also under pressure to arrest the perpetrators of the Huwwara riot.

"We expect the Israeli government to ensure full accountability and legal prosecution of those responsible for these attacks in addition to compensation for the loss of homes and property,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said during a press briefing.

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According to the Israeli military, on Monday night, a group of settlers hurled stones and purportedly attempted to ram a vehicle into an Israeli officer.

Separately on Sunday, a group of Israeli settlers assaulted a senior officer near a West Bank settlement, according to the Israeli military.

Israeli settlers are often detained for acts of violence towards Palestinians or Israeli officers and quickly released.

Rioting settlers feel “immune to the law. Fear of the state does not apply to them,” wrote Nahum Barnea for Israeli news outlet Ynet.

At least 62 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis this year, at a rate of more than one fatality per day. Meanwhile, 13 Israelis and one police officer have been killed by Palestinians in the same period.

This follows a steep increase in violence in 2022 when at least 167 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the highest death toll in those territories in a single year since the Second Intifada. Palestinian attacks killed 30 Israelis last year.

Israeli press review: Columnist warns 'Kristallnacht was relived in Huwwara'

Meanwhile, Israel's military is accused of 'deliberately turning blind eye' to violent riots and legal experts say the state could face war crime charges

A Palestinian looks at a torched car in the occupied West Bank town of Huwara on 27 February 2023 following violent settler riots (AFP)

By MEE staff
Published date: 28 February 2023 

Huwwara rampage likened to Nazi pogrom

A prominent Israeli commentator for a right-wing news outlet compared the violent rampage by Israeli settlers against Palestinian towns on Sunday to Kristallnacht or the "Night of Broken Glass".

Nahum Barnea on Monday wrote for Yedioth Ahronot that settlers "staged their own Kristallnacht in Huwwara," referring to the state-directed pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party in Germany in 1938.

"What went down… is to be carefully spoken about," Barnea said.

Huwwara riots: Eyewitness account of Israeli settler attack on Palestinian town

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"The settlers felt the Palestinians must pay a heavy price. At least one Palestinian was shot dead, others were rescued from their homes by security forces, moments before their homes burned to the ground. Kristallnacht was relived in Huwwara."

The veteran writer said rioting settlers feel "immune to the law" and that fear of the state does not apply to them.

He added that the violent rampage reflected the current far-right government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"Smotrich and Ben-Gvir likely see a bit of themselves in the delinquents in Huwwara. When they were young, they acted the same way. Have they matured? Perhaps, but not enough."

Hundreds of Israeli settlers, flanked by soldiers, attacked Palestinian towns and villages near Nablus in the occupied West Bank on Sunday following a shooting that killed two Israelis in Huwwara town earlier in the day.

The assaults left one Palestinian dead, nearly 400 wounded and dozens of homes and cars burned or destroyed.

Military accused of 'deliberately turning blind eye'

A leading Haaretz columnist criticised the Israeli military for inaction during the Huwwara "pogrom" and warned it will lead to "Sabra and Shatila 2".

Gideon Levy accused Israeli security agencies of failing to stop the violent settler marches "whether out of apathy and complacency, or because they were very deliberately turning a blind eye".

The Israeli military and reporters said soldiers attempted to prevent rioting settlers from reaching Huwwara, but "one way or another" they made it through, Levy said.

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However, he added, no one has taken responsibility for what has happened so far.

Israeli forces arrested only eight people for their alleged involvement in the rampage. They were all later released.

"Turning a blind eye in this way conjures up forgotten memories," Levy wrote.

"The IDF [Israeli military] also turned a blind eye in 1982 at the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Chatila in Lebanon, making it possible for Lebanese Phalangist militias to commit the terrible massacres there," he added.

"On Sunday, [settlers] made do with sowing destruction. But just wait for their next act of revenge, particularly when no one is brought to justice and punished for Sunday's pogrom. Sabra and Shatila 2 is on the way and no one's doing anything to stop it."

Israel launched an attack on Beirut on 15 September 1982 - breaking a weeks-long ceasefire that saw members of the Palestine Liberation Organisation leave the city - and sealed off the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.

On 16 September, the Phalange, a right-wing Christian Lebanese militia group, entered the Sabra and Shatila camps in response to the assassination of Lebanon's Christian president, Bachir Gemayel. They killed as many as 3,500 Palestinian and Lebanese civilians.
Israel 'could be open to war crimes charges'

An Israeli legal expert said Tuesday that if the Huwwara attacks are not investigated internally, Israel could face war crimes charges by international courts.

In an op-ed published in the right-wing Times of Israel website, David Kretzmer said rioters could be liable for committing war crimes after they violently rampaged through Palestinian towns.

Israel: Legal scholars call for 'war crimes' investigation into Smotrich remarks

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The law professor explained that Israel, as the occupying power in the West Bank, has a duty under international law to protect the local civilian population and prosecute persons responsible for war crimes.

If Israeli authorities fail to do so, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague may try those who committed war crimes.

"When at last security forces did arrive on the scene, they failed to contain the violence. Even more depressing was the support for the pogrom by leading members of the coalition," Kretzmer said.

"It is hard to know which is worse: that the failure was due to incompetence or negligence, or because for political reasons the commanders did not want to enter into confrontation with the settlers."

On Monday, 22 Israeli legal experts called on the attorney general to investigate pro-settler MPs - including far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich - for "inducing war crimes" over their public support for violent riots.

They argued that remarks made by the politicians "amount to encouragement to commit similar attacks in the future" and breached international law.

*Israeli press review is a digest of news reports not independently verified as accurate by Middle East Eye.

Israel: Settler terrorism is now the law

Massed groups of settlers sweeping unchecked through Huwwara seeking vengeance. This is all on Israel's new fascist government

Richard Silverstein
1 March 2023 


An Israeli soldier and a settlement guard jog past a burning car, reportedly set on fire by settlers, in the Palestinian village of Burin, occupied West Bank, 25 February 2023 (AFP)

On Sunday, a Palestinian gunman killed two Israeli settlers outside the village of Huwwara.

The killing was in retaliation for Israel's massive attack on Nablus a few days earlier, in which 11 Palestinians were murdered and the main shopping street was partially destroyed.

They swept through the town, burning everything in sight - cars, houses, utility poles - all the while bellowing cries of vengeance

After the Huwwara killings, hundreds of soldiers and Shin Bet agents swarmed through the village in search of the gunman. But when night fell, there was not a soldier in sight. That's when Jewish settlers massed in their hundreds and swept through the town, burning everything in sight - cars, houses, utility poles - all the while bellowing cries of vengeance. They even brazenly posted celebratory messages to social media platforms.

One Palestinian was shot and killed and more than 400 Palestinians were wounded, including a baby who was seriously injured.

On Monday, the army has taken over the entire town. All shops have been closed. Of the eight settlers arrested during the height of the riots, all have been released.
Settler terrorism

Although many Israelis took to social media to express their shock, with some likening it to a pogrom or Kristallnacht, another called it the triumph of the "Zionist Reich" and a third wrote on Facebook: "Welcome to 1933."

However, settler terrorism is nothing new to the Palestinians, with settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank on a year-to-year upward trend since 2016, according to the UN.

Huwwara riots: Eyewitness account of Israeli settler attack on Palestinian town

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There were at least 849 attacks by settlers against Palestinians in 2022, with at least 228 of them leading to casualties, UN data shows. In comparison, 496 attacks were recorded in 2021 and 358 in 2020.

Out of last year’s total attacks, 594 led to damage to properties. According to the Jerusalem-based Land Research Centre, 13,130 Palestinian-owned olive trees were damaged.

UN experts accuse Israeli authorities of being complicit in settler violence.

"Disturbing evidence of Israeli forces frequently facilitating, supporting and participating in settler attacks, makes it difficult to discern between Israeli settler and state violence," a UN statement issued last year said.

Huwwara, home to 7,000 Palestinians and encircled by Jewish settlements, has been the scene of repeated attacks in recent months.

While these latest events seem, on the surface, extraordinary and unprecedented, they are a direct reflection of the new Israeli government.

Not only is it the most extremist in the country’s history but, for the first time, it includes convicted terrorists as senior ministers. They endorse and embrace this violence. They scorn the instruments of the state - the army and police - which have exerted a limited amount of control over such extremist violence under previous governments.

Such collusion between state forces and settlers engaged in wanton acts of terrorism against the Palestinians threatens to turn Israel into a lawless state. Now, for the first time, homicidal violence, kept in check in the past, has been unleashed - with the government tacitly endorsing it.
Vigilante militia

We are no longer talking about a Third Intifada, although Palestinians will certainly retaliate. During previous Palestinian uprisings, the Israeli government’s response, while employing excessive use of force, when compared to what is going on today, probably showed some measure of restraint.

Now, the gloves are off and the state and these vigilante militias have unleashed a terrifying level of violence.

Without direct and decisive outside intervention by the US, the European Union and the United Nations, there may be much more bloodshed, including the ransacking of dozens, if not more, of Palestinian villages.

The final goal of these Israeli terrorists is the complete eradication of a Palestinian presence in Israel-Palestine, followed by the destruction of the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex and the building of a Third Temple.

How far will the world let this progress?

‘This pogrom is massive’

Two reporters, one of them Haaretz's Josh Breiner, documented the pogrom. He tweeted that for the first time in his career as a journalist, Israelis had fired live ammunition directly at him.

I confirmed with another Israeli reporter that this gunman was wearing an Israeli army uniform. It's astonishing that an apparently active-duty soldier would attempt to kill an Israeli reporter. I contacted the Israeli army chief press officer for comment but did not receive a response by the time of writing.

The army and the settlers have joined sides - something every Israeli activist already knew. But this highlights it in an especially disturbing way.

West Bank: How Nablus became the main hub for Israeli settler violence

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Of course, the Palestinians face this danger every day. But it must be difficult for a privileged Israeli to imagine that the Judeo thugs could hate him so much that they'd be just as happy if he were dead than alive.

In a Twitter thread, Breiner offered an eyewitness account: “You've certainly asked yourselves how many arrests there were on this night when Jews carried out a pogrom in a Palestinian village, burning houses and cars, pelting journalists with stones during the major riots, all under the nose of the IDF.

"And so, as expected, the answer is: no arrests [Breiner later updated that six have been arrested]. You can be sure that there is one minister [Ben Gvir] who didn't cry at the sight of the flames in Hawara. He promised to be the owner of the house, no? [Ben Gvir says that Arabs will have to get used to the fact that Jews are the 'landlord' in Israel].”

Palestinian journalist Muhammad Shehada's reporting on Twitter offered a detailed account of the extent of the devastation: “Hundreds of settlers are attacking Huwara, escorted & guarded by Israeli soldiers. Palestinian residents are caged in. Mosques’ loudspeakers are pleading for help. Anyone trying to defend themselves is attacked by settlers & soldiers. This pogrom is massive! Fires everywhere!”
'Hawara must be erased'

Israeli journalist Edo Konrad tweeted that Bezalel Smotrich, a senior government minister, who was once arrested by the Shin Bet while transporting an explosive device intended for a protest against the Gaza withdrawal, liked a tweet calling for the "erasure" (i.e. genocide) of Huwwara:

This is a translation of the genocide tweet which Konrad retweets: "The village of Hawara must be erased today. Enough with statements about building and strengthening settlements. The deterrence we've lost must be regained immediately, with no place for mercy."

Settlers aren't listening to Netanyahu. He is irrelevant. They already took the law into their own hands. In fact, there is no law

Fania Oz-Salzberger, daughter of the late Israeli novelist Amos Oz, likened the settler attack to a Cossack pogrom. She invoked the name of the leader of the thuggery, Bogdan Chmielnicki, the 17th-century Ukrainian military commander responsible for the murders of tens of thousands of Jews.

Translation: "Jewish thugs burning down homes in Hawara in the finest tradition of Chmielnicki. One person critically wounded, families rescued from burning buildings, scores suffering from tear gas inhalation. An army reserve unit quickly mobilised and sent 'to bring calm'. What? To embrace the pogromniks and stroke their heads?"

Jews have suffered their share of pogroms: the Romans burned rabbis at the stake; the Spanish Inquisition tortured them on the rack; Hitler gassed millions of European Jews in the extermination camps.

Given the massive violence in Huwwara, it is ghoulish for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to release a statement asking settlers "not to take the law into their own hands".

That horse has already left the barn. Settlers aren't listening to him. He is irrelevant. They already took the law, and much else, into their own hands.

In fact, there is no law. The settlers rule and no one stands in their way.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

Richard Silverstein writes the Tikun Olam blog, devoted to exposing the excesses of the Israeli national security state. His work has appeared in Haaretz, the Forward, the Seattle Times and the Los Angeles Times. He contributed to the essay collection devoted to the 2006 Lebanon war, A Time to Speak Out (Verso) and has another essay in the collection, Israel and Palestine: Alternate Perspectives on Statehood (Rowman & Littlefield) Photo of RS by: (Erika Schultz/Seattle Times)
Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. To learn more about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill out this form. More about MEE can be found here.

Israel's Smotrich wants 'another Nakba', says former defence minister

For right-wing minister Bezalel Smotrich, 'escalation is desirable' after settlers rampage through Palestinian town, says Benny Gantz

Palestinians walk near cars burned in an attack by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, on 27 February 2023 (Reuters)

By MEE staff
Published date: 28 February 2023 

Former Israeli defence minister Benny Gantz has said that far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich is supporting the settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, adding that Smotrich "wants another Nakba".

"Smotrich wants to cause another Palestinian Nakba - for him, escalation is a desirable thing," Gantz told Army Radio.

The Nakba, which means "the catastrophe" in Arabic, is the name given to the massacres and forced expulsion Palestinians endured at the hands of Zionist militias in 1948, as the new Israeli state came into existence.

Entire Palestinian villages were destroyed, with Zionist gangs indiscriminately killing unarmed civilians and burying some in mass graves. The Nakba left an estimated 15,000 Palestinians dead and some 750,000 fleeing their homes to live as refugees.

After helping earthquake victims, this Palestinian was killed by an Israeli rampage

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Gantz, who is leader of the National Unity Party in Israel, said he was "disturbed" by the support Israeli settlers who rampaged through a Palestinian town have received, describing them as a "militia with backing from some coalition figures".

"This is a very dangerous slope, one that cannot be allowed to stand," Gantz told Radio 103 in a separate interview, as quoted by The Times of Israel.

Hundreds of Israeli settlers, with the protection of Israeli forces, attacked Palestinian towns and villages near Nablus on Sunday, following a shooting that killed two Israelis in the town of Huwwara earlier in the day.

The assaults left one Palestinian dead, nearly 400 wounded and dozens of homes and cars burned or destroyed.

Before and after the mob violence took place, several Israeli politicians seemed to encourage or support the settlers' actions.

Smotrich, the finance minister who is also responsible for the occupied West Bank civil administration, liked a tweet that called for Israeli politicians to show no mercy and that the "village of Huwwara should be erased today".

Settler groups publicly announced their intention to carry out "revenge" in Huwwara on Sunday, and even shared the information on social media.

Settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has been on a year-to-year upward trend since 2016, according to the UN.

Nearly 700,000 settlers live in more than 250 settlements and outposts across the West Bank and East Jerusalem in violation of international law.

There were at least 849 attacks by settlers against Palestinians in 2022, with at least 228 of them leading to casualties, UN data shows. In comparison, 496 attacks were recorded in 2021 and 358 in 2020.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces resumed their nightly raids in the occupied West Bank overnight. They have become a regular occurrence for Palestinians in the occupied territories, inflaming tensions since Israel intensified them last year.

Italy: Migrants paid 8,000 euros each for 'voyage of death'

Rescue teams have pulled more bodies from the sea, bringing the death toll from Italy’s latest migrant tragedy to 65

ByPAOLO SANTALUCIA and LUIGI NAVARRA 

Associated Press
February 28, 2023


CROTONE, Italy -- Rescue teams pulled more bodies from the sea on Tuesday, bringing the death toll from Italy’s latest migration tragedy to 65, as prosecutors identified suspected smugglers who allegedly charged 8,000 euros (nearly $8,500) for each person making the “voyage of death” from Turkey to Italy.

Authorities delayed a planned viewing of the coffins to allow more time for identification of the bodies, as desperate relatives and friends arrived in the Calabrian city of Crotone in hope of finding their loved ones, some of whom hailed from Afghanistan.

“I am looking for my aunt and her three children," said Aladdin Mohibzada, adding that he drove 25 hours from Germany to reach the makeshift morgue set up at a sports stadium. He said he had ascertained that his aunt and two of the children died, but that a 5-year-old survived and was being sheltered in a center for minors.

“We are looking into possibilities to send (the bodies) to Afghanistan, the bodies that are here,” he told The Associated Press outside the morgue. But he complained about a lack of information as authorities scrambled to cope with the disaster. “We are helpless here. We don’t know what we should do.”

At least 65 people, including 14 minors, died when their overcrowded wooden boat slammed into shoals 100 meters (yards) off the shore of Cutro and broke apart early Sunday in rough seas. Eighty people survived, but many more are feared dead since survivors indicated the boat had carried about 170 people when it set off last week from Izmir, Turkey.

Aid groups at the scene have said many of the passengers hailed from Afghanistan, including entire families, as well as from Pakistan, Syria and Iraq. Rescue teams pulled two bodies from the sea on Tuesday, bringing the toll to 65, police said.

Premier Giorgia Meloni sent a letter to European leaders demanding quick action on the continent’s longstanding migration problem, insisting that migrants must be stopped from risking their lives on dangerous sea crossings.

“The point is, the more people who set off, the more people risk dying,” she told RAI state television late Monday.

Meloni’s right-wing government, which swept elections last year in part on promises to crack down on migration, has concentrated on complicating efforts by humanitarian boats to make multiple rescues in the central Mediterranean by assigning them ports of disembarkation along Italy’s northern coasts. That means the vessels need more time to return to sea after bringing migrants aboard and taking them safely to shore.

But aid groups’ rescue ships don’t normally operate in the area of Sunday’s shipwreck, which occurred off the Calabrian coast in the Ionian Sea. Rather, the aid groups generally operate in the central Mediterranean, rescuing migrants who set off from Libya or Tunisia — not from Turkey in the eastern Mediterranean.

Crotone prosecutor Giuseppe Capoccia confirmed investigators had identified three suspected smugglers, a Turk and two Pakistani nationals. A second Turk is believed to have escaped or died in the wreck.

Italy’s border police said in a statement that organizers of the crossing charged 8,000 euros (around $8,500) each for the “voyage of death.”

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi pushed back at suggestions that the rescue was delayed or affected by government policy discouraging aid groups from staying at sea to rescue migrants.

The EU border agency Frontex has said its aircraft spotted the boat off Crotone at 10:26 p.m. Saturday and alerted Italian authorities. Italy sent out two patrol vessels, but they had to turn back because of the poor weather.

Piantedosi told a parliamentary committee that the ship ran aground and broke apart at around 5 a.m. Sunday.

“There was no delay,” Piantedosi told Corriere della Sera. “Everything possible was done in absolutely prohibitive sea conditions.”

The Italian Coast Guard issued a statement on Tuesday saying Frontex had indicated that the migrants' boat was “navigating normally” and that only one person could be seen above deck.

It added that an Italian border police vessel, “already operating in the sea” set out to intercept the migrant boat.

"At about 4:30 a.m., some indications by telephone from subjects on land, relative to a boat in danger a few meters from the coast, reached the Coast Guard,'' the statement said.

At that point, a Carabinieri police boat which had been alerted by border police “informed the Coast Guard about the shipwreck."

In contrast to similar cases of migrant vessels in distress, “no phone indication ever came from migrants aboard” to the Coast Guard, the statement noted.

Not rarely, migrants aboard a vessel in distress contact Alarm Phone, a humanitarian support hotline which relays indications of boats in trouble in the Mediterranean to maritime authorities.

When briefing lawmakers, the interior minister cited figures supporting Italy's long-held frustration that fellow European Union nations don't honor pledges to accept a share of asylum-seeking migrants who reach Italy.

Piantedosi said that while these pledges covered some 8,000 migrant relocations from June last year through this month, only 387 people actually were transferred to other EU nations, with Germany taking in most of them.

Mexican President López Obrador says Tesla to build plant in Mexico



By — Mark Stevenson, Associated Press

 Feb 28, 2023 

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Tuesday that electric car company Tesla has committed to building a plant in the industrial hub of Monterrey in northern Mexico.

READ MORE: Mexico may accept more migrants expelled by U.S., López Obrador says

López Obrador said the promise came in phone calls he had Friday and Monday with Tesla head Elon Musk.

López Obrador had previously ruled out placing such a plant in the arid northern state of Nuevo Leon, where Monterrey is the capital, because he didn’t want any water-hungry factories in a region that has suffered severe water shortages. But he said Musk’s company had offered several commitment to address those concerns, including using recycled water.

“There is one commitment that all the water used in the manufacture of electric automobiles will be recycled water,” López Obrador said.

READ MORE: Tesla workers at New York plant fired after labor push, union says

López Obrador did not specify the size of the investment or what the plant would produce, noting that the company planned to release more details on Wednesday.

But he said “this is going to mean a considerable investment and many, many jobs.”

“My understanding is that it will be very big,” López Obrador said, but it was unclear if the plant would produce batteries, noting that “the batteries are still pending.”

Tesla already has two plants outside the United States, one in Shanghai and another near Berlin.

Monterrey is highly industrialized and close to the U.S. border, and had long been considered the frontrunner for any Tesla investment.

But the city suffered such severe water shortages in 2022 that many homes went weeks with intermittent or no water supply in 2022. The government is building a 60-mile (100 kilometer) pipeline to bring more water in from a dam to increase the supply.

READ MORE: Mexico’s former public security chief convicted in U.S. drug case

López Obrador had previously said his government “simply won’t grant permits” for any new plants there. But apparently Musk’s proposal overrode the president’s stance.

The announcement was a disappointment for more water-rich southern states which had begun jockeying for the Tesla plant after López Obrador’s comments last week.

The governor of Nuevo Leon state, where billboards went up last year saying “Welcome Tesla,” crowed about Tuesday’s announcement.

“Mexico won, Nuevo Leon (NL) won, WE ALL WIN!” Gov. Samuel García wrote in his Twitter account.

Musk at times has floated the idea of building a $25,000 electric vehicle that would cost about $20,000 less than the current Model 3, now Tesla’s least-expensive car. Many automakers build lower-cost models in Mexico to save on labor costs and protect profit margins.

López Obrador said Mexico wouldn’t match any U.S. subsidies to win the Tesla plant, referring to U.S. incentives under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

“A subsidy like that, we cannot give subsidies like that,” the president said, adding “Mr. Musk was very attentive, respectful” of Mexico’s position.

SFI Press reissues Complexity, Entropy, and the Physics of Information

The proceedings of a workshop held at the Santa Fe Institute, it contains many ideas that are as relevant today as it was when first published in 1990

Book Announcement

SANTA FE INSTITUTE

 

IMAGE: ON FEBRUARY 28, THE SFI PRESS RELEASED A TWO-VOLUME REPRINT OF THE SEMINAL BOOK OF PROCEEDINGS “COMPLEXITY, ENTROPY & THE PHYSICS OF INFORMATION” EDITED BY WOJCIECH H. ZUREK. view more 

CREDIT: SANTA FE INSTITUTE

FEBRUARY 28, 2023

For a few days early in the summer of 1989, roughly 80 physicists, computer scientists, mathematicians, and curious others flocked to St. John’s College in Santa Fe for what, in hindsight, was a foundational meeting on the physics of information. 

The workshop was hosted by the Santa Fe Institute, then just five years old, and brought together researchers who shared common convictions about the centrality of information. In the late 1940s, Claude Shannon had described a kind of grand theory of communication — the mathematical rules for how information is transmitted. His work, and that of others, sparked decades of excitement among scientists, but by the 1980s the hype had largely deflated, giving way to deep theoretical and experimental work. 

The workshop attracted “scientists who took Shannon seriously, and who instituted a new science of physics and complexity based on information theory,” according to quantum mechanical engineer Seth Lloyd, who attended the workshop just after finishing his Ph.D. The participants shared brave new ideas about how information theory could be applied to solving problems in a raft of fields ranging from art to biology to society. 

The workshop proceedings, Complexity, Entropy and the Physics of Information, were originally published in 1990, but contain many ideas that are still relevant today. In early 2023, the SFI Press issued a reprint of the proceedings as part of its mission to make important works of complexity science affordable and accessible. This re-publication also includes a new foreword by Lloyd. 

The original proceedings begin with a “manifesto” that borrows from Marx and Engels' The Communist Manifesto. “The specter of information is haunting sciences,” wrote theoretical physicist Wojciech Zurek, who organized the workshop. Indeed, the proceedings describe a sprawling spectrum of ideas. They connect the natural sciences to the science of computation, and they characterize the emergence of classical physics from the quantum realm in the early universe. 

Heady topics like these — and dozens of others — seemed, at the time, almost revolutionary. “These ideas were very much in the thin air back then,” says Zurek, at Los Alamos National Laboratory. “But it was very clear to us who attended that this was the beginning of something big. It didn’t feel fringe to us.” 

Many of the ideas would prove to be transformative. “Some of the ideas that people were talking about then became the foundations for novel ways of thinking about computation,” says Lloyd, now at MIT, whose says his own interest in information theory, in the 1980s, isolated him from other researchers. At SFI, “I thought, oh my God, there’s a community working on this, and it’s my community.” 

Zurek says that a reissue of the proceedings is both a historical nod to the importance of the papers and a possible source of inspiration. “A lot of ideas are in that book,” he says. “Some of them have been explored. But some of them are seeds which haven’t germinated completely. These ideas may yet develop into something influential and interesting, and intellectually satisfying.” 

Book Details

Book: Complexity, Entropy & the Physics of Information
Edited by Wojciech H. Zurek
$10.99 (Paperback)
Publisher and imprint: The SFI Press Archive Series
444 pages (volume I); 416 pages (volume II)
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-947864-27-6 (volume I); 978-1-947864-30-6 (volume II)
Publication Date: February 28, 2023
Available on Amazon
Volume I: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1947864270
Volume II: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1947864300

Novel method of analyzing microplastic particle pollution can facilitate environmental impact assessment

Microplastic particles separated from a sediment sample from the Guarapiranga reservoir in metropolitan São Paulo show different particle sizes

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO

 

IMAGE: THE STUDY AIMS TO CONTRIBUTE TO PROGRESS IN THIS FIELD BY PROPOSING A NOVEL PERSPECTIVE ON PARTICLE MORPHOLOGY view more 

CREDIT: CRISTIANO R. GEROLIN/UNIFESP

In the last decade, growing numbers of researchers have studied plastic pollution, one of the world’s most pressing environmental hazards. They have made progress but still face challenges, such as the comparability of results, especially with regard to microplastic particles.

There is no standard sample collection and analysis methodology, for example. Most studies present conclusions based on numbers of particles as if they were environmentally equivalent regardless of size, volume, mass or surface area.

An article by three Brazilian researchers published in Environmental Science and Pollution Research aims to contribute to progress in this field by proposing a novel perspective on particle morphology.

Using a theoretical approach, the authors argue that including morphological attributes in the analysis can reveal significant differences between samples of microplastic particles, demonstrating that samples initially considered equivalent because they contain the same number of particles actually have different environmental impacts because of variations in particle size and shape.

Microplastic particles (MPs) are artificial polymers with a length of between 0.001 and 5.0 millimeters, or 1-5,000 micrometers (μm), and are found in all kinds of environment. Few studies of pollution by MPs have been published in Brazil, especially regarding inland aquatic areas.

“Most of the research that’s been done on MPs reports the number of particles in terms of the unit adopted for the sample type, ranging from volume in the case of water, to mass when the analysis involves soil and sediment, and individuals for biota. We’ve been researching MPs in the laboratory for several years, and we’ve confirmed that size is important and makes a difference. We measure particle size in all samples. In this study we found samples with similar numbers of MPs but significant variations in particle size and very different levels of plastic pollution based on particle mass and volume,” Décio Semensatto, first author of the article, told Agência FAPESP. He is a professor at the Federal University of São Paulo’s Institute of Environmental, Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences (ICAQF-UNIFESP). 

The other authors of the article are Professor Geórgia Labuto and Cristiano Rezende Gerolin, a former researcher at UNIFESP.

According to Semensatto, the group is finalizing an article on the Guarapiranga reservoir, a source of drinking water for São Paulo and two nearby towns, Itapecerica da Serra and Embu-Guaçu. “We collected samples in the wet and dry seasons and found more MPs in one season than another, with an even greater difference in terms of each sample’s mass and total volume of plastic. Using only numbers of particles as a parameter focuses on just one dimension and ignores that fact that different particle sizes have different effects on ecosystems,” he said.

Semensatto is supported by FAPESP via the project “Microplastics in the water and sediments from the estuary of the Amazon River (AmazonMicroplast)”, analyzing the presence of MPs in the lower part of the estuary and their role as vectors of metals in aquatic environments. The team will analyze 52 water samples and 12 sediment samples collected in December 2021 and July 2022 in the vicinity of Macapá, the state capital of Amapá (North Brazil).

Comparisons

According to the recent article, the researchers analyzed seven samples with 100 MPs each. These would be considered equivalent based on conventional pollution metrics. However, the comparisons made showed that their impact on the environment would be very different. In one sample, the MPs were larger in terms of volume, mass and specific surface area. It therefore had more plastic than the others and was likely to give rise to a larger number of even smaller particles when broken down by physical and chemical degradation. 

In another comparison, they analyzed samples with 100 MPs and 10 MPs respectively, noting that if only the number of particles were considered, the conclusion would be that the former had ten times more plastic than the latter, although both had the same total mass and volume of plastic, while particle size and specific surface area were larger in the former.

The authors also highlight the question of morphology or particle shape. Samples containing fibers had less volume, mass and surface area, for example.

“We also explore the question of specific surface area, which is highly relevant, especially when studying MPs as carriers of other pollutants, such as metals or pharmaceuticals,” Semensatto said. “Particle size influences the surface area available for adsorption of these pollutants. In addition, MPs also form a plastisphere that serves as a substrate for organisms and disperses these organisms to other environments, with consequences for global health.”
The plastisphere is the community of bacteria, fungi, algae, viruses and other microorganisms that have evolved to live on man-made plastic.

“By considering particle volume, mass and specific surface area, we can better understand how MPs pollute water bodies and transport other agents responsible for pollution, including microorganisms,” Semensatto said. “Analyzing all attributes of samples brings new possibilities into view and extends the comparability of the results.”

The vast scale of the problem

World production of plastic reached 348 million metric tons in 2017, up from only 2 million tons in 1950. The global plastic industry is valued at USD 522.6 billion, and its capacity is expected to double by 2040, according to a report by The Pew Charitable Trusts and SystemIQ, partnering with Oxford and Leeds Universities in the UK.

Plastic production and pollution affect human health and fuel greenhouse gas emissions. Plastic can be ingested by more than 800 marine and coastal species or cause accidents involving them. Some 11 million tons of plastic waste enter the oceans every year.

In 2022, 175 countries represented at the UN General Assembly adopted a historic resolution to sign up by 2024 to a legally binding commitment to end global plastic pollution. To this end, they established an intergovernmental negotiating committee, which held its first session in December.

“With this study, we set out to contribute to academic efforts to develop routines and methodologies for dealing with plastic pollution,” Semensatto said. “Our article proposes a discussion within the academic community. The proposal is open to debate. We're inviting other scientists to measure MPs and report their morphological attributes, as a contribution to the discussion of their environmental significance.” 

In this context, a group at UNIFESP linked to Semensatto are working with the São Paulo State Environmental Corporation (CETESB) to develop protocols for collecting water samples and analyzing MPs in the coastal region of the state. The main aim is to find a way to compare results so that MPs can become part of continuous environmental monitoring, which they are not right now in São Paulo.

This project is being conducted under the aegis of Rede Hydropoll, a network of researchers at various institutions engaged in studying water source pollution.

About São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)

The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can only be done by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, higher education, private companies, and research organizations in other countries known for the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration. You can learn more about FAPESP at www.fapesp.br/en and visit FAPESP news agency at www.agencia.fapesp.br/en to keep updated with the latest scientific breakthroughs FAPESP helps achieve through its many programs, awards and research centers. You may also subscribe to FAPESP news agency at http://agencia.fapesp.br/subscribe.

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JOURNAL

Environmental Science and Pollution Research

DOI

10.1007/s11356-022-24567-4 

ARTICLE TITLE

The importance of integrating morphological attributes of microplastics: a theoretical discussion to assess environmental impacts

People spend 1/6th of their lifetime on enhancing their appearance

And not only to find the love of their life!

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NATIONAL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY HIGHER SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

An international team including HSE researchers has conducted the largest ever cross-cultural study of appearance-enhancing behaviours. They have found that people worldwide spend an average of four hours a day on enhancing their beauty. Caring for one's appearance does not depend on gender, and older people worry as much about looking their best as the young do. The strongest predictor of attractiveness-enhancing behaviours appears to be social media usage. The study findings have been published in Evolution and Human Behaviour.

People have always valued beauty. Throughout history, we have gone to great lengths to enhance our physical appearance. Early homo sapiens are known to have applied pigment to decorate their bodies, and ancient civilizations widely used cosmetics, ornate clothing, and jewellery. According to some scholars, our tendency for appearance enhancement might have originated from primate self-grooming behaviours.

But what exactly motivates us to spend time trying to look more physically attractive? From an evolutionary perspective, this may be part of mating behaviour, since good looks indicate good health and good genetics, maximising the chances of having healthy offspring; therefore, physical appearance is one of the key criteria in selecting a mate. From this perspective, women are assumed to be more interested in enhancing their physical attractiveness than men, and younger unmarried women are thought to be particularly concerned with their appearance.

There are a few other theories explaining people’s preoccupation with their physical attractiveness. One of them, the pathogen prevalence theory, suggests that people in countries with a high prevalence of dangerous infections such as leishmaniasis, trypanosomiasis, malaria, and leprosy are likely to spend more time improving their appearance, in particular to conceal visual imperfections which may be perceived as signs of disease. Sociocultural characteristics, such as gender inequality or individualistic vs. collectivist attitudes, and the influence of mass media or social media usage can also impact on how much time people invest in their appearance.

An international team of scientists including HSE researchers have tested the a range of these theories to determine which factors have the greatest impact on beauty-enhancing behaviour. The authors surveyed more than 93,000 people across 93 countries about the amount of time they spend every day enhancing their physical appearance. To date, it is the largest study carried out in in evolutionary psychology.

"We were able to collect data on almost 100,000 people across a very large sample in terms of age, education and income level, including many participants from non-industrial countries for which we had no previous data" Dmitrii Dubrov, Study co-author, Research Fellow of the HSE Centre for Sociocultural Research.

According to the evolutionary hypothesis, people want to look good to improve their chances of finding a suitable mate. The survey found both men and women spend an average of about four hours a day on behaviours designed to enhance their physical attractiveness. In addition to putting on makeup, grooming their hair grooming and selecting clothes, such behaviours include caring for body hygiene, exercising or following a specific diet for the purpose of improving one’s appearance (as opposed to taking care of one’s health, for example).

It has also been found that older people spend about as much time as younger ones enhancing their attractiveness. People in early romantic relationships tend to spend more time enhancing their appearance compared to those who are married or have been dating for a while.

The pathogen prevalence hypothesis was only partly confirmed: individuals with a history of serious pathogenic diseases were likely to spend more time enhancing their appearance, e.g. by applying makeup to mask traces of the disease, but no association was found between one's investment in beauty and living in a country where certain pathogens occur. The reason may be better healthcare, even in poorer countries which used to struggle with severe infections in the past.

As expected, women from countries with pronounced gender inequality tend to invest more time and effort in beauty enhancement than women in countries which have advanced gender equality. The same is true of countries and cultures with traditional attitudes towards gender roles.

Individualistic cultures that value individual accomplishments over those of the collective also emphasise the importance of enhancing one's physical attractiveness.

Social media usage appears to be the strongest predictor of attractiveness-enhancing behaviours. Active social media users – in particular, those who strive for unrealistic beauty standards and become concerned when their pictures get fewer likes – have been found to invest more time in improving their appearance than those who spend less or no time on social networks.

"In this paper, we tested five existing theories that shed light on people's attractiveness-enhancing behaviours. These theories are complementary rather than mutually exclusive. We confirmed certain assumptions and came up with some interesting and less expected results. This study is an important step in evolutionary and sociocultural research that will allow a better understanding of human psychology and our attitudes towards beauty", Dmitrii Dubrov, Study co-author, Research Fellow of the HSE Centre for Sociocultural Research. 

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JOURNAL

Evolution and Human Behavior

DOI

10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2022.08.003 

ARTICLE TITLE

Predictors of enhancing human physical attractiveness: Data from 93 countries

Centuries of whaling data highlight likely climate change effect

Centuries-old whaling records show how southern right whales, or Tohorā, are altering their feeding habits.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND

Southern right whales adjusted their foraging grounds over the past 30 years as climate change altered where prey could be found, according to a University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau scientist.

Dr Emma Carroll, of the School of Biological Sciences, was senior author of a paper which used data gleaned from contemporary whale skin samples along with whaling records stretching back to 1792. Over the past three decades, the whales increased their use of mid-latitude foraging grounds in the south Atlantic and southwest Indian oceans in the late summer and autumn, according to Carroll and dozens of collaborators including lead author Solène Derville, of Oregon State University.

The whales also slightly increased their use of high latitude foraging grounds in the southwest Pacific, according to the article, published in the journal PNAS. Southern right whales, or Tohorā, live south of the equator, eating krill and copepods, which are small crustaceans. Chemical analysis of skin samples revealed the whales’ feeding patterns in recent decades. The main source of historic data was the American whaling fleet's detailed records of where and what species were observed and killed in the Southern Hemisphere from the 18th to the early 20th century.

The whales' history and efforts to support Aotearoa's population are detailed on the website Tohorā Voyages. 

Tohorā were hunted to near extinction, with global numbers falling to as low as 500. By 2009, an estimated 2,200 of the creatures were in New Zealand waters, moving between the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands (Maungahuka) and Campbell Island (Motu Ihupuku), and occasionally around mainland New Zealand including Stewart Island (Rakiura).

Southern right whales live from about 30 degrees South to more than 60 degrees South, the edge of the Antarctic. Large and slow-moving, the whales are mostly black in colour and easily identified by white growths on their heads called callosities. They have no dorsal fin and a V-shaped blowhole spray.

JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2214035120 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Meta-analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Long-term stability in the circumpolar foraging range of a Southern Ocean predator between the eras of whaling and rapid climate change